Scheming

On the night Kang Dabao went to inspect the county's armory, the warehouse clerk wearing a pink turban stealthily made his way to Luo Heng's study.

"That scoundrel Kang Dabao saw that the armory contained only a dozen or so broken Law Artifact, two bottles of Qi-restoring pills, and a dilapidated Star-Chasing Crossbow. He immediately said he wanted to thoroughly investigate the accounts of the state magistrate's allocation of funds. I made up an excuse to brush it off, but I can only postpone it until tomorrow. Tomorrow I will have to bring out the accounts for him to examine."

Luo Heng narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. He had considered that Kang Dabao might be impotently furious, that he might drag him to the armory to berate him, and that the guy might come looking for him to fight in his anger. But he had never imagined that Kang Dabao would want to investigate the accounts of the state's levies.

"How did he know about that sum of money?" Luo Heng found it strange. He only found out the location of the Spirit Stone from a note Xie Fu left in the magistrate's study. He thought he had done a clean job and that even the Huo Household didn't know.

However, even if Kang Dabao knew about this, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Although the Spirit Stone that the county had intercepted were indeed split 50/50 between myself and Sun Bingdou, I was still living as a son-in-law in the Huo Household when the funds were allocated.

If the higher-ups really investigate, I can easily pin the blame on Xie Fu and those other dead men.

As long as things look good on the surface, that's fine. But if you really want to be removed from your post, it's not a good idea to find someone else to be a death-defying official at this time.

Thinking of this, Luo Heng recalled the shrewish woman at home whose arms were thicker than his thighs, and couldn't help but shudder.

"If I hadn't used every trick in the book to please her, I wouldn't have known that being appointed as an official in Pingrong County had these benefits. It wasn't in vain that I risked my life to come here for wealth and honor. If you really wait until you reach the Foundation Establishment, hmph, let's see how you deal with the Huo Household!"

"Once that matter comes to light, I'll get rid of Kang Dabao as soon as possible, wipe out that lousy sect, and save him from getting in my way," Luo Heng thought bitterly.

Sect Leader Kang Da, who was studying military formations by lamplight inside the house, was unaware that Luo Heng harbored such resentment towards him.

In Kang Dabao's understanding, his conflict with this son-in-law of the Huo Household was nothing more than a verbal battle and a little bit of messy romance involving prostitutes and the division of Spirit Stone.

Logically speaking, since everyone is taking on this death-defying official post, we should all be more amicable and just get by day by day.

What's the point of forming cliques and engaging in backstabbing, insisting on distinguishing between superiors and inferiors? It makes outsiders think these positions are highly coveted.

His inspection of the armory was just for show; even before he went there, Sect Leader Kang Da could guess what it looked like inside.

The regulations for the armory that the civil official mentioned were established by the founding emperor. At that time, the Immortal Dynasty was powerful and influential in all directions, and peaceful and prosperous domestically. The sects and Aristocratic Clan in various provinces and prefectures were all very obedient.

Under these circumstances, the rule of the Immortal Dynasty was extremely terrifying. The vast majority of cultivation resources within the Immortal Dynasty were controlled by officials at various levels, suppressing sects and Aristocratic Clan to the point of exhaustion.

At that time, the armories in each county were naturally fully equipped.

But now that the Immortal Dynasty has become so decadent, if we still inspect the armory according to the regulations from the time of the founding emperor, wouldn't that be deliberately finding fault?

Kang Dabao's casual remark to the clerk about wanting to check the accounts was met with a tactful response from the clerk, so Sect Leader Kang Da had no doubts and no interest in checking the accounts of the state magistrate's appropriations the next day.

The most important thing for Sect Leader Kang Da right now is to seize the time to improve his own strength.

After studying the military formations, Kang Dabao took out the corpse-refining artifact for further refinement, thinking, "Every extra day I can live is a blessing."

Humans have no intention of harming tigers, but tigers may harm people.

The next morning, Sun Bingdou arrived at Luo Heng's room early. After learning that Kang Dabao might know about the Spirit Stone, the old cultivator's eyes turned somewhat dangerous.

He exhaled a breath of stale air, his eyes filled with a fierce light. "Fellow Daoist Luo, do you think I should take action?"

"Old Master Sun's cultivation is profound, and if he were to make a move, it would be foolproof, but the timing is not right. The officials of Pingrong County cannot afford any more mistakes; the higher-ups haven't taken their eyes off this place yet." Luo Heng was somewhat tempted, but after thinking about it, he still rejected Sun Bingdou's suggestion.

"He's always been a menace," Sun Bingdou sighed. "If I'd known, I would have strangled him sooner."

As a veteran late-stage cultivator, he was quite confident in his strength. Dealing with Kang Dabao, a junior in the Middle Qi Refinement, would be a piece of cake.

"Don't be anxious, Elder Sun. Didn't County Magistrate Kang say he's in charge of military affairs?" Luo Heng sneered. "An elder has already sent me news from the Prefectural Governor's Office that bandits are rampant in Guo County recently, and the prefectural government will soon issue a decree to all counties to conscript local militia."

Sun Bingdou understood. It wasn't necessarily that bandits were rampant in Guo County; more likely, some short-sighted force had become a thorn in the side of the state government.

It's a major operation that requires conscripting soldiers from various counties and townships. Based on previous experiences, the power of Guo County must be considerable, and it's very likely that it will be involved in the Foundation Establishment War.

Sun Bingdou lived a long life, so his experience was naturally quite rich; he even had the good fortune to witness the Foundation Establishment battle.

He broke through to the Qi Refinement Ninth Layer before he was sixty-five years old. He thought he had a good chance of Foundation Establishment and was full of pride. So he bid farewell to his sect and went out to travel alone in search of a fortuitous opportunity to Foundation Establishment.

To my surprise, after searching for three or four years, I still came up empty-handed.

On his fruitless journey back, he encountered two Foundation Establishment True Cultivator battling in the sky.

Sun Bingdou almost instantly had the idea of "the fisherman reaping the benefits," but he had only been hiding in the shadows for a few breaths when he was discovered by the "crane and clam" fighting each other.

Immediately afterwards, two earth-shattering spells struck in succession. Sun Bingdou powerless to escape and had no choice but to take out all his defensive Law Artifact to block them. Those Law Artifact were as fragile as paper.

Sun Bingdou was struck by the weakened Daoist magic in despair, and only survived thanks to a bit of luck.

When Sun Bingdou awoke, the two Foundation Establishment True Cultivator were already gone. They had no time to care about the life or death of this ant, and didn't even bother to pick up the Storage Bag at his waist, leaving him to die on his own.

Sun Bingdou used his almost incurable injuries to wash away his arrogance.

The words "Foundation Establishment" filled him with boundless longing, and his reverence for such powerful individuals was beyond words.

According to his thinking, as long as Kang Dabao is sent to the battlefield where Foundation Establishment cultivators face off, this young sect leader will probably not be able to withstand the aftershocks of the Foundation Establishment battle and will have a high probability of dying on the spot.

This reassured the old cultivator considerably, and he asked, "Has the time been set?"

"Don't worry, Elder Sun, it won't be long after you and your teachers arrive in Tanggu County." Luo Heng looked confident. "I'll still need to pull some strings to make sure our County Magistrate Kang's military affairs stand out!"

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